Hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of copper, lead or zinc

Active Publication Date: 2017-10-26
MINERA PECOBRE S A DE CV
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  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

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Benefits of technology

[0015]Australian Patent AU2006201600B2 (Western Minerals Technology Pty. Ltd. 2006) describes a method for processing a copper mineral (chalcocite, chalcopyrite, etc.), wherein the copper ore is activated via grinding at P80 between 2-20 microns followed by an oxida

Problems solved by technology

The recovery of noble metals from leaching residues containing sulphur is much more difficult.
Particularly, when there is jarosite formation, gold recovery from total residues of oxidative leaching by cyanidation is high, but silver recovery is limited by silver jarosite formation.
A major difficulty is the recovery of noble metals from leaching residues containing S° because this involves drying the residue, removing the S° with an organic solvent, and performing pressurised leaching followed by cyanidation.
However, capital costs and plant maintenance are relatively high because chloride solutions require special construction materials and, additionally, electrowinning directly from solutions of chlorides does not produce copper cathodes which is the accepted form of copper for sale.
Silver can be recovered via cementation with copper, but gold recovery is difficult with direct cyanidation due to the S°.
Pyrite is generally not significantly leached, meaning that the gold cannot be recovered if it is associated with the pyrite.
Despite the various developments in recent decades on the hydrometallurgical copper processes, there is still no operable commercial process for treating chalcopyrite concentrates, primarily because (1) the pow

Method used

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  • Hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of copper, lead or zinc
  • Hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of copper, lead or zinc
  • Hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of copper, lead or zinc

Examples

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Effect test

example 1

Hydrometallurgical Process for Treating Matte-Speiss Material (Cu2S Cu3As) from a Lead Foundry, and Copper Cements from an Electrolytic Zinc Plant

[0041]FIG. 2 shows the schematic block diagram of the hydrometallurgical treatment process of matte-speiss material (Cu2S—Cu3As) from a lead foundry, and copper cements from an electrolytic zinc plant, where each stage of the invention's hydrometallurgical process (FIG. 1) is renumbered for the specific application conditions of this example, as follows:

Stage 1. Grinding (210)

[0042]Matte-speiss material (211) containing 40.13% copper, 20.40% lead, 10.5% total sulphur, 6.73% iron and 4.22% arsenic is subjected to (210) dry grinding until obtaining a particle size P90 of 45 microns. Then, the resulting matte-speiss material is sent for leaching (220).

Stage 2a. Leaching of the Matte-Speiss Material (220)

[0043]A sample of 4.310 g of matte-speiss material from the grinding (210), with a particle size P90 of 46 microns, is mixed with an acid sol...

example 2

Leaching Stage of the Hydrometallurgical Process for Treating Chalcopyrite-Based Copper Concentrates

[0056]FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the grinding and leaching stages of the hydrometallurgical process for treating chalcopyrite-based copper concentrates, where:

[0057]A sample of 999 g of a chalcopyrite concentrate (311) containing 19.80% copper, 10.20% zinc, 20.30% iron and 28.60% of total sulphur, is subjected to grinding (310) to obtain a particle size P80 of 15 microns, the resulting material is sent to leaching (320) where the sample is mixed with 16.5 l of a solution (321) containing 11.50 g / l iron as ferrous sulphate and 64.7 g / l free sulphuric acid. The reactor (321) is closed and kept at a partial oxygen pressure of 12 lb / in2, the reaction temperature is 80° C. and it is allowed to react for 8 hours, the redox potential during this reaction time is maintained between 400 and 500 my with respect to the Ag / AgCl electrode.

[0058]Subsequently, the suspension is filtered (330) a...

example 3

Leaching Stage of the Hydrometallurgical Process for Treating Sphalerite-Based Zinc Concentrates

[0059]FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the leaching stages of the hydrometallurgical process for treating sphalerite-based zinc concentrates, where:

[0060]A sample of 262 g of a concentrate of zinc (411) containing 48.5% zinc, 12.39% iron and 34.6% of total sulphur, is subjected to grinding (410) to obtain a particle size P90 of 45 microns, the material retrieved is sent to leaching (420) where the sample is mixed with 239 g zinc ferrite (421) containing 19.8% zinc, 25% of total iron and 21.6% as iron (+3). This material mixture is added to a solution (421) composed of 0.4 l water, 0.043 l sulphuric acid at 98% purity and 3.070 l zinc sulphate solution containing 36.50 g / l zinc as zinc sulphate and 165.6 g / l free sulphuric acid.

[0061]The reactor (421) is closed and kept at a partial oxygen pressure of 12 lb / in2, the reaction temperature is 90° C. and it is allowed to react for 14 hours, the...

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Abstract

A hydrometallurgical process for the treatment of polymetallic ores and sulphide concentrates of copper and zinc, and by-products of lead and zinc from smelting plants, treated independently and/or as mixtures thereof, which contain relevant amounts of lead, copper, zinc, iron, gold and silver, such as the matte-speiss mixture of lead foundries, and copper cements from the purification processes of electrolytic zinc plants. Thee process allows the recovery of metallic copper, zinc, copper as copper and zinc basic salts, which may be hydroxides, carbonates, hidroxysulphates or mixtures thereof; the production of stable arsenic residues; and the effective and efficient recovery of Pb, Au and Ag as a concentrate of lead sulphide and/or lead, Au, and Ag sulphate.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to hydrometallurgical processes for the recovery of Cu, Pb and / or Zn from polymetallic minerals and sulphide concentrates, and by-products from lead smelting plants such as the matte-speiss mixture, with relevant valuables of gold and silver, and copper cements from the purification processes of electrolytic zinc plants, in particular, the process allows the recovery of the metals copper and zinc, such as copper and zinc basic salts, which can be hydroxides, carbonates, hydroxysulphates or mixtures thereof; the production of stable arsenic residues; and the effective and efficient recovery of Pb, Au and Ag as a concentrate of lead sulphide and / or lead, Au, and Ag sulphate.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]For more than two decades, renewed interest has emerged in the development of hydrometallurgical process technologies. The impetus of these developments is mainly due to the desire to develop a viable alternative fo...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): C22B15/00C22B3/00C22B3/08
CPCC22B15/0071C22B11/04C22B3/08C22B13/04C22B19/22Y02P10/20C22B3/04C01F5/40C01D5/02C01D5/16C01G28/02
Inventor BENAVIDES PEREZ, RICARDOALMAGUER GUZM N, ISAIASV ZQUEZ V ZQUEZ, DAVID EZEQUIEL
Owner MINERA PECOBRE S A DE CV
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